Question Mark in Address Bar

64-bit Vista Home Premium

When I got this system about a week ago, I discovered that by simply typing
a question mark into the taskbar's address followed by a search term would
generate a google search just as if I had opened a browser window and typed
the search string in there.

That feature has for some reason stopped working. With both Firefox 3 and
IE7 if I attempt the same operation now, ?searchterm gets translated into
http://?searchterm which of course doesn't work.

This is my first Vista machine so I probably changed a setting somewhere
that altered this behavior. I'd really like to get it back - especially
since I've learned that there apparently is no integrated Google taskbar
that can be placed into the Windows taskbar as I used to have on my old XP
machine.

TIA,

Tom

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Tom Hall <> wrote in
news::

> 64-bit Vista Home Premium
>
> When I got this system about a week ago, I discovered that by
> simply typing a question mark into the taskbar's address followed
> by a search term would generate a google search just as if I had
> opened a browser window and typed the search string in there.
>
> That feature has for some reason stopped working. With both
> Firefox 3 and IE7 if I attempt the same operation now, ?searchterm
> gets translated into http://?searchterm which of course doesn't
> work.
>
> This is my first Vista machine so I probably changed a setting
> somewhere that altered this behavior. I'd really like to get it
> back - especially since I've learned that there apparently is no
> integrated Google taskbar that can be placed into the Windows
> taskbar as I used to have on my old XP machine.
>
> TIA,
>
> Tom
>

Put a space after the question mark

? searchterm

not

?searchterm

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:46:05 -0700, Dave Cox <> wrote:

>Tom Hall <> wrote in
>news: :
>
>> 64-bit Vista Home Premium
>>
>> When I got this system about a week ago, I discovered that by
>> simply typing a question mark into the taskbar's address followed
>> by a search term would generate a google search just as if I had
>> opened a browser window and typed the search string in there.
>>
>> That feature has for some reason stopped working. With both
>> Firefox 3 and IE7 if I attempt the same operation now, ?searchterm
>> gets translated into http://?searchterm which of course doesn't
>> work.
>>
>> This is my first Vista machine so I probably changed a setting
>> somewhere that altered this behavior. I'd really like to get it
>> back - especially since I've learned that there apparently is no
>> integrated Google taskbar that can be placed into the Windows
>> taskbar as I used to have on my old XP machine.
>>
>> TIA,
>>
>> Tom
>>
>
>Put a space after the question mark
>
>? searchterm
>
>not
>
>?searchterm

Doesn't work. It gets turned into http:///?%20searchterm and the invalid
URL message appears, after which a brower window opens, but does not
complete the search.

Sorry - I didn't notice before that there were three slashes after the
http:

When it worked, the URL became http://search.google.com followed by a long
string of alphanumeric characters including the text of the search string.

Tom

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On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:27:09 -0600, Tom Hall <>
wrote:

>This is my first Vista machine so I probably changed a setting somewhere
>that altered this behavior. I'd really like to get it back - especially
>since I've learned that there apparently is no integrated Google taskbar
>that can be placed into the Windows taskbar as I used to have on my old XP
>machine.

A thought just occurred to me. About 3 days after I got this machine
Windows Update pushed SP2 at me. That _might_ have been about the time the
feature stopped working.

Just a wild speculation...


Tom

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Tom Hall <> wrote in
news::

> On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:46:05 -0700, Dave Cox <>
> wrote:
>
>>Tom Hall <> wrote in
>>news: m:
>>
>>> 64-bit Vista Home Premium
>>>
>>> When I got this system about a week ago, I discovered that by
>>> simply typing a question mark into the taskbar's address
>>> followed by a search term would generate a google search just as
>>> if I had opened a browser window and typed the search string in
>>> there.
>>>
>>> That feature has for some reason stopped working. With both
>>> Firefox 3 and IE7 if I attempt the same operation now,
>>> ?searchterm gets translated into http://?searchterm which of
>>> course doesn't work.
>>>
>>> This is my first Vista machine so I probably changed a setting
>>> somewhere that altered this behavior. I'd really like to get it
>>> back - especially since I've learned that there apparently is no
>>> integrated Google taskbar that can be placed into the Windows
>>> taskbar as I used to have on my old XP machine.
>>>
>>> TIA,
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>
>>Put a space after the question mark
>>
>>? searchterm
>>
>>not
>>
>>?searchterm
>
> Doesn't work. It gets turned into http:///?%20searchterm and the
> invalid URL message appears, after which a brower window opens,
> but does not complete the search.
>
> Sorry - I didn't notice before that there were three slashes after
> the http:
>
> When it worked, the URL became http://search.google.com followed
> by a long string of alphanumeric characters including the text of
> the search string.
>
> Tom
>

Have you tried resetting the default search engine?

Open IE and to the right of the search box in the top right click the
small black triangle and select "Manage Search Providers"

Set another as the default then try again.

If that doesn't work maybe someone else has more info.

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:24:26 -0700, Dave Cox <> wrote:

>Have you tried resetting the default search engine?
>
>Open IE and to the right of the search box in the top right click the
>small black triangle and select "Manage Search Providers"
>
>Set another as the default then try again.
>
>If that doesn't work maybe someone else has more info.

Sorry, I guess I didn't make myself clear. I'm referring to the address bar
that can be set to appear in the Windows taskbar, not the Address bar in
the browser.

And IE is not my default browser - Firefox 3 is.

When the search from the address bar worked, it worked in both browsers -
whichever one I would have set as the default at the time.


Tom

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Tom Hall <> wrote in
news::

> On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:24:26 -0700, Dave Cox <>
> wrote:
>
>>Have you tried resetting the default search engine?
>>
>>Open IE and to the right of the search box in the top right click
>>the small black triangle and select "Manage Search Providers"
>>
>>Set another as the default then try again.
>>
>>If that doesn't work maybe someone else has more info.
>
> Sorry, I guess I didn't make myself clear. I'm referring to the
> address bar that can be set to appear in the Windows taskbar, not
> the Address bar in the browser.
>
> And IE is not my default browser - Firefox 3 is.
>
> When the search from the address bar worked, it worked in both
> browsers - whichever one I would have set as the default at the
> time.
>
>
> Tom
>

I understood which address bar you were talking about.
You can change the default search engine for the taskbar address bar
the way I explained.

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:54:03 -0700, Dave Cox <> wrote:

>I understood which address bar you were talking about.
>You can change the default search engine for the taskbar address bar
>the way I explained.

I tried setting the default search engine to Yahoo but it made no
difference. The ? search is still broken.


Tom

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